All apples may be created equal, but they are not all the same.
Their colors range from the startling green of a Granny Smith to the yellow of the Golden Delicious to the crimson-flushed hues of the Cortlands.
Their tastes vary, too, from the briskly tart to the sweetly aromatic. But most important from the cook’s point of view, all apples do not behave the same way in the kitchen.
Take McIntoshes, for example. When Macs are just picked, they’re crisp, but in cooking, that crispness disappears as they fall into a puree.
This is just what you need for making applesauce, but it’s not useful in an apple-topped cake or tart where you need slices to hold their shape. For this purpose, the Golden Delicious or Granny Smiths would be a better choice.
If you want raw slices to garnish a dessert or cheese plate, Cortlands are best because unlike other apples, they don’t brown when exposed to the air. This makes them good in salads, too.
Pauline Lannon, president of Atkins Farms Country Market in Amherst, notes the special qualities of several other apples from the Atkins orchards.
“Divine, Pink Lady and Jazz are all new varieties,” Lannon said. “They are hard and sweet and good for keeping. Burgundy and Honey Crisp have great flavor and also keep well. Empire is a nice hard apple. Treat it like a McIntosh. Matsu and Ida Red are good pie apples. Northern Spy is great in pies.”
Northern Spy was developed in New York State in the early 1800s. Flavorful and with more Vitamin C than most apples, it is harvested late. Apple lovers snap it up so it disappears quickly, but late September is a likely time to find it.
Many other old apple varieties are now also hard to find. Some lost popularity because of their appearance. Others were grown for making hard cider, which was, in bygone times, New England’s basic drink. Cider apples contain tannin, which acts as a preservative in cider, but tastes bitter so these apples are not good to eat, and now that hard cider is less popular they are rarely grown.
On the other hand, many older varieties of apples have delicious flavors or are traditional favorites for pies.
“People often ask for heritage varieties so my son is putting some into the orchards,” Lannon said.
One such apple is the Roxbury Russet, a 17th-century Massachusetts apple thought to be America’s oldest. Once popular because it stored well over winter and made good pies, it lost favor because its rough browny-green skin lacks the eye appeal of colorful modern apples.
As the Roxbury Russett suggests, apples have long been a New England crop, and the region still grows more apple varieties than anywhere else in the country. Unfortunately, this year’s harvest is not huge.
“Apples do best when the weather gets gradually colder so they can adapt to it,” Lannon said. “That just didn’t happen last winter. The weather was mild but then there was a sudden late freeze all over the region so we lost some of the apples.”
Nonetheless, the bulging baskets of apples at local orchards and farmers markets are a sight to cheer the heart because apples are such culinary work horses. The number of recipes for apple pies, cakes and other desserts seems countless. Then there’s applesauce and apple jams and chutneys, and apples that add a tasty zing to meat and vegetable dishes. Here are some recipes with notes about which apple to use in each one.
The sweet fruitiness of commercial applesauce makes it a big favorite with kids. Homemade applesauce is typically thicker, and you can make it as smooth or chunky and as sweet or tart as you like. McIntoshes are a good apple to use because they quickly collapse. Use them alone for a smooth sauce or try combining them with a sturdier apple such as Granny Smith, Pink Lady or Golden Delicious to add extra flavor and chunkiness.
Applesauce has many uses. It’s one of the first solid foods for babies. It’s a good condiment with pork, chicken or duck. It’s the basis of many desserts.
In Jewish cuisine it’s the essential partner for latkes, the potato cakes eaten at Hannukah. The quantities suggested in the following recipe are guidelines rather than strict rules; applesauce can be varied to suit your taste and the apples you have on hand.
2-3 McIntosh apples (about 1 pound), peeled, cored and sliced
1 Golden Delicious, Granny Smith or Pink Lady apple (about 6 ounces), peeled, cored and diced
½ cup sugar, or to taste
Put the apples in a saucepan along with half a cup of water. Cover and set over low heat. Cook for about 5 minutes or until the apples are softening. Stir in the sugar, increase the heat slightly and continue cooking until the apples are cooked through and have formed a sauce of the consistency you want.
This is not a cake as we usually think of it, but a member of the apple-and-bread family of desserts, which includes Apple Brown Betty and Apple Charlotte. It’s a homey recipe. In Denmark, restaurants often serve it gussied up with cream and a spoonful of berry jam or a few fresh berries.
6 tablespoons butter
2 cups breadcrumbs made from slightly stale white bread
About 4 cups homemade apple sauce (see recipe above)
About 1 cup whipped cream for serving (optional)
A few blueberries or raspberries or 2 tablespoons raspberry or cranberry jam for garnish
Melt the butter in a frying pan over moderate heat. Stir in the breadcrumbs and let them gently fry for about 4-5 minutes or until they are golden and crisp. Using either one large serving dish or 4-6 individual serving dishes, spread a layer of apple sauce. Top with a layer of breadcrumbs. Repeat these layers. Serve with a small dollop of jam or a few berries plus cream if you like.
The cobbler base of this recipe is not as rich as the sponge cake often used in upside down cakes, but its simplicity shows off the apples and maple syrup — another prized local crop.
For the topping
3 tablespoons butter
3 large Golden Delicious or Cortland apples (about 1½ pounds), peeled, cored and sliced
About cup pecan halves
cup maple syrup
For the cobbler:
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup cake flour (or substitute an extra half-cup of all-purpose)
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon powdered cinnamon
6 tablespoons
butter
½ cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
6-ounce container vanilla or plain yogurt
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees and grease an 8-inch layer cake pan with a little of the butter. Line the base with parchment paper.
Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan and gently fry the apples in it, letting the golden and soften, but not fall apart — about 7-8 minutes. Remove them from the pan and arrange them on the parchment paper, either in circles or any pattern you like. Intersperse the pecans among them. Any remaining apples slices or pecans can be scattered on top. Pour on the maple syrup and set aside
To make the topping, mix the all-purpose and cake flour with the baking powder and cinnamon. Cut the butter into 5-6 pieces and scatter them in the flour mixture, Rub or cut them in, then stir in the sugar. Make a well in the center, and drop in the beaten egg and half the yogurt. Stir them into the mixture, adding extra yogurt until you have a thick dough.
On a lightly floured board, pat or roll it into an 8-inch disk and lift this onto the prepared apples. Don’t worry if it breaks as you lift it. Simply replace the pieces and press the edges together. Also press the dough to the edge of the pan. Bake for about 20-25 minutes or until the surface is a little crusty and a skewer poked in the middle comes out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack. Run a knife between the cobbler and the edge of the cake pan to loosen it then place a serving plate on top and invert. The parchment paper lining helps keep the apples and pecans in place, but if they have shifted nudge them back where you want them with a knife. Serve slightly warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream.
This pie was a Massachusetts specialty, often mentioned in memoirs of 18th-and 19th-century Thanksgivings. Cortland apples are a good choice because the flesh doesn’t brown when exposed to the air. Golden Delicious are good, too, as and Northern Spies are perfect.
4 large Northern Spy or Cortland apples (about 2 pounds), peeled and cored
Grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
¾ cup granulated sugar
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk, beaten
1 tablespoon rum or 1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
4 tablespoons butter, melted and allowed to cool but not solidify
½ cup half-and-half or light cream
9-inch deep-dish pie shell, baked blind
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Grate the apples. (You should have about 2 cups grated apple.) Quickly mix the grated apple with the lemon zest and juice, then stir in the sugar, and then the beaten eggs, the rum or vanilla, the nutmeg and melted butter, and finally the half-and-half or cream.
Pour this mixture into a pie shell that has been previously baked to a light gold without any filling. Place it in the center of the oven and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking for another 15 minutes or until a toothpick poked into the middle comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Apples pair wonderfully with blackberries, each fruit enhancing the other. The filling in this recipe could be used in a pie or cobbler if you prefer. Also note that precise quantities of apples and blackberries don’t matter a great deal so if you add more of one or the other the outcome will be fine.
For the filling:
3 McIntosh, Cortland or Northern Spy apples (about 1¼ to 1½ pounds), peeled, cored and sliced
About 3 cups blackberries (roughly 12 ounces)
½ cup sugar (or to taste)
1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed with a tablespoon water
For the topping
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 stick butter at room temperature
½ cup rolled oats
½ cup sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon or ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
To make the filling, put the sliced apples in a pan with ¼ cup water. Cover and cook for 4 minutes until they have softened somewhat. Stir in the blackberries and sugar and cook without a lid until the mixture is bubbling and thick. Take a little of the juice, and stir it into the mixed cornstarch. Return this to the pan and stir until the mixture has thickened. Pour it into a shallow baking dish.
Turn the oven to 350. Put the flour in a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into 8-9 pieces and rub them into the flour. When the mixture looks like very coarse crumbs, stir in the oats and sugar, setting aside a teaspoon of each to use later. Stir in half the cinnamon or nutmeg. Scatter this mixture evenly over the apple-blackberry filling. Scatter the reserved spoon of oats on top, then the reserved sugar and cinnamon or nutmeg.
Bake in the center of the oven for about 20 minutes or until golden on top and fragrant. Serve hot or at room temperature with cream or ice-cream.